Contractor Cloud speaks with ABC NSW Country Hour and AuctionsPlus

AuctionsPlus transformed how stock was sold in Australia

Contractor Cloud speaks with ABC NSW Country Hour and AuctionsPlus on Agri-tech Startups and Rural Employment

Towards the end of 2015 Contractor Cloud’s Andrew MacAlpine was invited to speak with ABC NSW Country Hour correspondent, Sally Bryant. Born and raised on a sheep station between Louth and Wanaaring (near Bourke), Sally has travelled around Australia for work and now reports on rural news in the Western Plains of NSW on a wide variety of industries and communities.

Contractor Cloud and Sally caught up to discuss the exciting advancements in Agtech, the rural workforce and the changes brought upon by the rising commodity prices for agriculture. As a new startup, Contractor Cloud discussed the opportunities available for tech start-ups in bringing new technology to the bush and the advantages for rural businesses. Sally described the vibe in the outback as confident in the future, especially as people transition from mining to agriculture. We then left Sally in peace to prepare for her Christmas Day radio cast.

Contractor Cloud also had the opportunity to speak with one of the founders ofAuctionsPlus Peter Hargreaves. AuctionsPlus allows commodity transaction, reserve price setting and legal change of ownership without the seller, buyer or product having to come together physically at the time of the sale. Peter detailed how it started in 1986 as Computer Aided Livestock Marketing (CALM), however, when it was first introduced in the late 80s via dial up the internet was not yet widely adopted or quick enough in rural Australia. After going through multiple iterations, AuctionsPlus was reintroduced as we know it today with the farming community continuing to grow in its willingness to adopt the sale of livestock online.

We discussed how the introduction of technology in the bush is no different to the age of technology adoption lifecycle which dictates that you will have early adopters, early majority, late majority and then laggards, see diagram below. AuctionsPlus is a great example of technology being used to effectively overhaul age old processes, they are leading the way with a record 340,000 head of livestock being sold through the platform in 2015. As recognised by Beef Central there is potential for continued growth of AuctionsPlus this year with mobile/tablet versions being introduced and a user experience rating system getting rolled out.

Contractor Cloud was able to learn a lot from the history of AuctionsPlus and Peter’s first hand experience introducing Agtech into the bush.